


Wildflowers

by hellynz



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Team as Family, bugborg, happy one-shots, soft soft soft soft soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2019-12-26 22:31:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellynz/pseuds/hellynz
Summary: Love, like wildflowers, can be found both right outside or in the most unlikely places.--A series of Nebula-centric oneshots taking place between GOTG Vol 2 and Infinity War. Expect lots of variety in length and content, but mostly just a lot of fluff.





	1. proof

Mantis had heard of the concept of a ‘happy place’.  
  
Some of Ego’s children, the ones who were old enough to become frightened during their time there, would confide in her if she found them late at night. They described picture their homes, sitting with their families, laughing with their friends, the feelings of wholeness and happiness that glowed within them when they were in certain places or with certain people.  
  
Mantis had never had a happy place on Ego. It was a paradise, yes, but it was one designed for someone else. She had found some of the colors garish, some of the scents overpowering. The all-encompassing beauty of the planet was entirely subjective.  
  
And, of course, there was the fact that the place she lived was literally also the man who controlled her every move.  
  
Until he had been defeated, she may have called her happy place ‘any time Ego is asleep and not paying attention to me’.  
  
“Do you automatically feel a person’s emotions when you touch them, or is it a conscious thing?” Nebula asked suddenly, breaking Mantis out of her thoughts.  
  
She tilted her head to one side. “It’s hard to explain. It’s not automatic, more like instinctive. If I am not focusing on it, it does sort of just happen. But most of the time when I know I will be in contact with someone and I am not trying to feel their feelings, I do not. It’s like an on-off switch, but it’s default setting is on.”  
  
Nebula grunted in the way Mantis had come to recognize as a thoughtful acknowledgement.  
  
“Have you...” Nebula trailed off, shifting slightly behind her. She was leaning against the wall of the Benatar, sitting with her legs spread in front of her. Mantis was settled comfortably between them, leaning against her chest. Her antennae glowed softly and brushed against Nebula’s cheeks when she moved.  
  
“Yes?” she prompted. Nebula had made incredible strides in her emotional development since she had made up with her sister and started regularly visiting the Guardians as their friend rather than foe. She wasn’t exactly close with all of them, still barely spoke to Quill and didn’t even want to be in the same room as Drax most of the time, but she had stopped treating emotions other than rage like poison.  
  
She still needed a little encouragement sometimes, which Mantis was more than happy to provide.  
  
“Have you ever, you know...” her words faded away again, and then Nebula reached forward and took Mantis’s hand in her non-robotic one, holding it gently and with a trepidation she did not usually have.  
  
“Oh,” Mantis frowned, and then laced their fingers together. “No, I have not.”  
  
She felt Nebula’s chin brush the top of her head as she nodded. “Because you are scared of what you’ll see inside my head.”  
  
The sentence was not asked; it was a statement, voiced with total neutrality and acceptance.  
  
“Wh- no, not at all,” Mantis said, sitting up quickly and spinning to face the cyborg. Nebula’s face had gone the dangerous sort of blank that she usually reserved for their discussions about Thanos. A blankness that usually betrayed deep, burning fury. “That’s not it at all.”  
  
“Why not then?” she asked, a flicker of - thank goodness - genuine confusion rather than anger passing across her face. “Are you not able to? Am I too much machine for real feelings?”  
  
“No, I- Don’t say that, you are not. Because your sister told me I should not do that without permission! I thought that was the polite thing to do.”  
  
Nebula’s eyebrows raised and then she flushed, her mouth opening in a small “oh”.  
  
Still frowning, Mantis leaned forward and pressed her forehead to Nebula’s. Both hands now laced fingers together, and she squeezed the flesh and cybernetic ones with the same amount of fondness.  
  
“Do you want me to?” she asked softly, running her thumbs in gentle circles.  
  
“I don’t know,” was the quiet response. She opened her eyes again and leaned back, looking into the deep black pools that matched her own. “I might. But I’m also...”  
  
She shifted uncomfortably again, her eyes leaving Mantis’s but her hands gripping back tighter. Her gaze darted around the room as she searched for the words.  
  
“You’re worried about those things,” Mantis said, “aren’t you?”  
  
Nebula frowned and glared at her, but Mantis knew her well enough at this point to see there was no real malice behind it.  
  
“You’re worried that I won’t like what I see, or that I won’t see anything at all, and you thought that maybe if I’d already done it, you’d have an answer without having to ask-”  
  
“I’m not worried,” she interrupted, words clipped, and she finally let go of her hands and started sitting up, gently untangling herself and moving to stand.  
  
“Nebula, wait,” Mantis asked, grabbing her by the forearm, and she paused on one knee, face still flushed darker than usual. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to overwhelm you.”  
  
She got another soft grunt in return, more of the eyes darting around and refusing to meet hers, but her muscles were relaxing, settling into place rather than preparing themselves to rise.  
  
“I didn’t look into your emotions simply because Gamora taught me when we first met that it is rude to do so without permission. And I have never come into contact with you unprepared to not look.”  
  
Nebula’s gaze finally settled back at hers, the arm Mantis was still grasping sliding to hold her hand again.  
  
“I will look one day if you want me to. Or I won’t. Doesn’t matter.”  
  
“You aren’t curious?” Nebula muttered, her face still holding a bit of that defensive glare.  
  
“Well, of course I’m curious. I bet it’s wonderful inside your head,” Mantis said, her face splitting into a wide smile.  
  
Nebula blushed yet again and sighed irritably, one corner of her mouth twitching up into a half-smirk.  
  
“But I don’t mind waiting. You are my happy place, whether I’ve felt what you feel or not.”  
  
Nebula tilted her head at the saying she did not recognize, and Mantis lifted her hand, palm facing her. “I can show other people what I am feeling, too.”  
  
After a moment of hesitation, Nebula raised her own hand and pressed it gently against Mantis’s.  
  
_Warmth. Love. Happiness. Security. Safety. Fondness. Fun._  
  
She pushed forward everything she felt when Nebula was nearby or was simply in her thoughts, whether they were just sitting next to each other or kissing in the desperate way they hadn’t gotten past yet (she let a little of her desire to go further slip in, too). Nebula inhaled quickly, her eyes fluttering shut, and then she was leaning forward and wrapping Mantis in her strong arms, burying her face into her shoulder.  
Mantis smiled again and returned the embrace, running her fingers idly down the seams along the back of Nebula’s head.  
  
“You’re my happy place too. I’ll let you see, one day,” Nebula murmured, voice muffled into the soft cloth of the tunic Mantis was wearing, and she she smiled even wider and snuggled closer.  
  
“I don’t need to see. I believe you.”  
  
A huff of warm laughter against her shoulder. And then they were arranging themselves against the wall again, to watch the stars race by.


	2. time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five years is a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major spoilers for Endgame (but its been months you've all seen it by now)
> 
> Most of this fic will stay in the time between GOTG2 and Infinity War but I saw this fan art and I HAD to write this really quick drabble:
> 
> https://bugborgs.tumblr.com/post/185664340371/5-years-is-a-long-time-commissions-ko-fi
> 
> Please note that in my canon Nat and Tony are alive and happy and that Ego measured time in Earth years because I say so.

Mantis doesn’t get to see her, right after.

There was screaming and confusion and triumph, but also fear and sadness, and so much to do, so many people to help and organize and try to stay out of the way of, that she doesn’t get to find Nebula until she already knows what has happened, knows Gamora is back but isn’t and that Thanos was gone and was back but is dead twice over, and knows how long it’s been. How long she and half of the universe have been gone. How long Nebula has been without her.

So when she finally sees her, leaning against what was once a huge concrete pillar with exhaustion and a little bit of glee hanging over her like a cloak, she hesitates.

She’s even more beautiful than she was the last time Mantis saw her, just a few hours ago in her own head but five years - five _entire years_ \- for Nebula, and she was leaner, had gold accents that Mantis hadn’t seen before, she was wearing a different outfit and she was so, so beautiful. But she was five years older. _Five years._

“What’re you staring at?” Mantis jumped and turned, glancing down at Rocket as he approached. It has been five years for him, too. Groot stood behind him, off to the side, helping a group of volunteers shuffle through some of the rubble. Rocket came to a stop beside her and saw Nebula about twenty feet ahead of them, standing with one of the men in the iron suits who was not _the_ Iron Man and a human woman wearing bright red hair and a bruised eye, and Mantis couldn’t help but smile as she saw Nebula smile too in conversation, her posture easy and calm, more relaxed than she’d possibly ever seen it.

“I’m not staring,” she lied, twisting her fingers together. “I’m just watching. I don't- don't want to interrupt." She even turned to leave, convinced she wasn't wanted. _This isn't the time or the place, it isn't about you or Nebula, this is so much more._

Rocket let out a heavy breath that might have been a laugh. “You don’t wanna see Nebula? Cause lady, I’m telling you, if you don’t want her anymore I might just have to kill you.”

She frowned, felt her antennae droop. Because Nebula is leaning in a content air of satisfaction, of peace and tranquility that Mantis had never known her to feel. And it thrills her, she is so ecstatic she can barely breathe, but-

He reached for her then, gave her leg a light punch. “Hey, what’s wrong kid? Why the long face?”

“It has been so long,” Mantis whispered, letting her hands drop to her sides in defeat. “I’m sure she has forgotten all about me."

She could feel Rocket staring at her, and then he really did laugh, a loud, bellowing thing. “Mantis, if she finds out you think she went a day without thinking about you she’ll kill you herself. Nebula gives 5% of her brain to the rest of the world, I might have earned about 1% over the past couple of years, the other 94 is just you and Gamora. Hey, Blue!” he shouted, fully grabbing the attention of the trio down the hill from them and pushing Mantis into a forward stumble. “Found your girl!”

Mantis turned bright red, raised her eyes to protest, to laugh it off. But Nebula had shoved away from the pillar she was leaning against and was staring at her, mouth open. The man and woman behind her rose as well, the woman tilting her head in confusion but something like realization dawning in the man’s eyes.

Nebula caught Mantis’s black eyes with her own. Mantis smiled. And then Nebula was grinning, was running up at her, ignoring a damaged leg, and before Mantis could worry or protest she had thrown her arms around her waist and lifted her off the ground, spinning them in a circling that left Mantis breathless and giggling. And Nebula was laughing too, or she thought she was, her shoulder shaking as she pressed her face into Mantis’s neck, whispering her name over and over, _oh Mantis, Mantis-_

"You're happy to see me?" she asked, gasping for air, running her hands over the familiar and unfamiliar seams of skin and metal, the softness of her jacket and the roundness of her cheeks."I was worried, I just thought maybe it had been too long, maybe you'd moved on."

Nebula went stiff and then pulled her even closer, and suddenly Mantis realized there was wetness spreading on her neck, tears pricking Nebula's eyes as she moved her head back just far enough for them to press their foreheads together. "It has been a long time. It's been a very long time and I never stopped- I always missed you-" she broke off and cleared her throat, her face and the feelings flooding from their contact flailing from relief to peace to joy to irritation at herself, and Mantis laughed again, let her hand rest against Nebula's face.

"I love you too," she whispered, and Nebula's whole body shook again.

"Well, I've got to meet the girl who can make Nebula cry," said the red haired woman, approaching slowly and smiling up at Mantis with the same waves of relief and peace rolling off of her.

"Me too, but I think I've heard of you before," said the man, also walking towards them, and as Nebula scoffs and turns away, still smiling, wiping at her eyes with a fist, he extends a hand. "I'm Rhodey. And you must be Mantis."

She grinned and reached forward to shake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning a much longer chapter involving Tony and Pepper so stay tuned for that. But for now I just had to get this out there.
> 
> If you like Doctor Who, I'm lucky enough to be published in a FANZINE that's out now!! Go to thirteenfanzine.tumblr.com to buy one :)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm starting this hoping that there is an audience for it, so please leave a comment below or shoot me an idea for a chapter on Tumblr so I don't feel like I'm writing just for myself.  
> Send me prompts!!! hellynz.tumblr.com


End file.
